F1: Hamilton Escapes with Fine for Tire Transgression

Lewis Hamilton has avoided a potentially costly penalty after McLaren mistakenly allowed him to use two sets of standard wet tires in Friday morning practice.

In the tense atmosphere surrounding the title battle there was obviously a concern that his grid position might suffer. However, he escaped with a fine of 15,000 Euros ($21.5k) and the loss of a set of tires from his weekend allocation,

Under this year's rule it is clearly stated that on Friday each driver can use only one set of standard wets (aka intermediates) and one set of extreme wets. However in the course of the morning the crews of Hamilton, Jenson Button and Takuma Sato all made the same mistake.

All three drivers were called to the stewards who decided that the offenses were not serious enough to deserve a penalty that compromised the grid positions of the drivers. In addition to the fine they have to return the least used set of standard wet tires, leaving them with just one used set and two new sets for the rest of the weekend, including qualifying and the race.

That would be a major concern in the event of continuing poor weather, but the forecast suggest that it will be dry on Sunday.

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